Pic: Superfantastic

Written By Dave

Static stretching has for a long time been a staple part of volleyball warm ups. Walk into a lot gyms and you will see teams sitting in circle for several minutes performing static stretching, before they launch into their training or game. Research shows that this might not be the best way to prepare….

What is static stretching?

Pic: Shayman(USA)

Written By Dave

The Volleyball World Cup is a great tournament, with the best teams from around the world battling it out for a place in the Olympic Games. But what makes these teams the best teams in the world? Of course, any team competing in this tournament must be good, but what separates 1^st from 12^th?

I have reviewed the average age, average number of games (national representations) and average height of each of the teams, to try and identify some trends and figure out the role these variables play in the make up of a successful team.

 
Pic: J.Star

I like big butts. Not big flabby ones. Big, powerful, strong ones. The kind you see on 100m sprinters. A big, strong butt, generally means you can generate a lot of power. Why do we want big glutes? We jump a lot, and when you jump, your glutes play a massive role.

Why Are Your Glutes So Important?

‘Ankle braces will weaken your ankles mate, don’t stay on them too long’. I don’t know when or how this myth started, but guys, it ain’t true. We play Volleyball. We jump at the net, surrounded by many other people, land from crazy heights, into even more dangerous positions, feet are everywhere, uncoordinated idiots jumping under the net…please, protect your ankles.

What is Proprioception?

Proprioception is an important sense in the body. Unlike, sight, touch, hearing taste and smell, it focuses on only internal feedback from the body. Proprioception is the process by which you body can vary muscles contraction in immediate response to incoming information about your body in space. It is basically a sensory feedback for muscle control and posture.

Pic: hugovk

Injuries happen in every sport, and we get a fair share of them. A study was done in Australia by Monash University in 2001 on Injury rates and severity amongst Volleyball participants. There is really no comprehensive source of injury data in Australia. This study used insurance claims, and hospital admissions. They also took lots of data from previous studies. This means there are big limitations with these stats, but hey, its all we have and we are going to share them. We have summarised the massive report just a little for you, hopefully provides some interesting stats.

Hip mobility is important for Volleyball players. The ability to get low is imperative in many skills. My philosophy is, if you want to get lower, then get low more often. Basically, if you want to be able to get low, then you simply need to do exercises in which you are getting low. Simply squatting deep all day is pretty boring, and there are a few other exercises which target some of the muscles that are often limiting factors in why you can’t get full range.

what every libero should be able to do… Pic:milopeng

Get Lower! One of the most common things you hear your coach say to you is to get down lower. Low in defence, low in passing, just get low. If you are low, chances are you will perform the skill better. Unfortunately it’s not that simple. Many of us struggle to force our hips through that range of motion. The good news? It is very easily fixed.

Pic: MightyFastPig

We all know that setters are clearly the smartest and best-looking players in a Volleyball team, and generally the most talented. But what else do we know?

Let’s do a little bit of background work to start. Somatotype refers to the kind of body shape you have, what your body is inclined to look like, what your physique is. You heard in the interview with Phill DeSalvo, that he referred to himself as an Ecto. What he meant was an Ectomorph, here is a small explanation of each type.

Stretching is great for your recovery… Pic: Tom@HK

You finish your game, you lost, the coach is mad, you are mad, some idiot tells you to stretch and have something to eat…you get even angrier, grab your bag and storm off to your car and get home as quick as possible. Sound familiar? It’s happened to me numerous times and I always regret it. Recovery is something many Volleyballers, and athletes in general neglect. What they don’t realise is that recovery techniques have many more benefits for athletes than simply rehabilitation and recuperation. This article is a bit of an overview on recovery and not so much specific to Volleyball, but we’ll start with it and do some more detailed posts later.

Dave and I spent Christmas over in Prague with Phill. In between relaxing, eating and watching way too many episodes of Entourage, we managed to get this out of him.

For those that don’t know, Phill plays in Prague with CZU Praha, and is the libero for the Mens National Team. He’s dedicated to his sport and getting himself in the shape he needs to be, and we thought he would be a good start for our all star interview list.